By Maria Mercedes Rodriguez Z. / Liliana Elias
Swirling around Venezuela through its chocolates is a unique and wonderful experience. Our country is valued for its cocoa and its chocolatiers, being increasingly prepared and respected worldwide.
Mantuano Chocolates is a sample of that talent approaching excellence every day through tablets flavoured and aromatised with fantastic ingredients to produce what is known as “Bar to Bar”. From the hot pepper and sea salt up to jobito pepper and sarrapia beans, all of them allow you to go deep into a world of new flavours and as ours as the utilised cocoa.
Currently, Mantuano also joins the movement Bean to Bar (from seed to the bar) which, for the last few years, has been the source of much talk-and taste- in Venezuela as well as other places. By means of this process, the company manages to get even closer to the producer and handle the processing of cocoa to become it into chocolate
Giovanni Conversi, the artist behind Mantuano Chocolates
Giovanni Conversi, president of Mantuano Chocolates, is a master of chocolate, who has developed the experience that gives to work together with personalities like Maria Fernanda Di Giacobbe. He enjoys the treasure of youth and the experience in his profession. He is the kind of people who shows peace and gets the feeling that everything will be always alright. He is also accompanied by the fortune of creating his tablets in a colonial house, which recalls that distant Caracas of red roofed houses and peaceful streets, with spectacular gardens and wooden and past stairs, with aromas strolling among their steps, inviting to enter the laboratory where magic occurs.
Inside the laboratory, being in front of dozens of tablets of different flavours, creative and beautiful packaging, it is unavoidable giving the space that a smile deserves to be part of the scenery. Silence and temperate climate are suitable for creating a peaceful ambience where, while an assistant was packaging tablets, we interviewed Giovanni, seeking to learn more about the structure of a company that does not step back. Its goal is success.
From great cocoa to Mantuano
The name Mantuano was always linked to the history of cocoa in Venezuela, since the arrival of Spaniards to Venezuela until now where many haciendas still preserve that name. “The name Mantuano conveys our traditional flavours, flavours that were mixed and become into our chocolates,” Giovanni says.
This brand has been dedicated to making us proud of the name Venezuela since its beginning, just over two years ago. The company expansion set in less than six months throughout Venezuela. Likewise, at present it is also found in Buenos Aires, Bogota, New York, Vancouver, Milan, and even Sydney.
The cocoa used comes from Barlovento, Miranda state, and it is a delicious Trinitarian. Its strengths are highlighted by Conversi, who claims that this seed produces a chocolate as tasty as aromatic which blends perfectly with his finished creations.
Growth and variety
Currently Mantuano develops expansion plans at national level, working closely with some licensed from IESA’s Marketing Postgraduate, what will allow it to increase its presence in Venezuela. It is done with passion and perseverance as a ritual in each tablet.
The range of flavours that Mantuano has can only be overcome by its creator’s imagination. Giovanni Conversi is an artist who seeks to surprise an audience avid of good cocoa and new proposals. His emblem tablet is the sea salt one, followed by the sarrapia one, chocolate 70%, orange criollo, earl grey, ginger, coffee, hot peppers, almonds, candied fruits, granola, lemon and, last but not least, white chocolate with peanuts.
Mantuano has a tradition. It develops a special edition each month. Among the latest it stands out a chocolate bar 72% cocoa, issued for the launching of Venezuelan painter Onofre Frias’ exhibition.
Venezuela has been for the last two decades, a country where who does not know where to find opportunities could not cope with the crisis. For master chocolatiers and companies dedicated to this art, maintaining quality standards is essential for positioning. Chocolates Mantuano assumes this with utmost importance. The result is excellence as well as a unique flavour that allows it to have hopes of country’s progress, a little chocolate square at a time.
You can contact Chocolates Mantuano by their social networks
Instagram: @mantuanochocolate
Twitter: @mantuanochoco
